Video:
New Discovery: Smoking Chimney and Hydrothermal Vents
In the final minutes of a long dive near the Galapagos Islands in the Galapagos National Park, Dr. Bob Ballard and the Corps of Exploration find the first active hydrothermal chimneys of the 2015 expedition amid a diverse colony of chemosynthetic organisms.
Expedition
Galapagos Rift Exploration
The E/V Nautilus will spend several weeks exploring the Galapagos Rift region. The Galápagos Islands have been instrumental in the establishment of the biological theory of evolution, gaining insights to our knowledge of the chemistry of the Earth’s interior, and understanding the plate tectonic evolution of the eastern Pacific seafloor. In 1835 Charles Darwin visited the islands aboard the HMS Beagle and made fundamental biological and geological observations in the area.